Geoffrey Maurer - 12/31/2023
Living Expectantly
From Series: "Expectancy"
The season of Advent teaches us expectancy – that waiting with hope is good and important for the people of God. There’s a cultural waiting around Christmas that lasts only a month or so and then quickly rushes past. But we are to see this season as instructive for faith, a quality that lingers. Around the time of Jesus’ birth, the air was thick with expectation. In the long years since the last prophetic messengers, and considering their understanding of the Scriptures, the people had begun to watch more explicitly for the promised Messiah. They were waiting expectantly. And as we now know, by God’s grace, the fullness of time had indeed come upon them. God sent His Son to be the Savior. Due to His coming we’re now turned to a new type of watchfulness – the glorious day of His return and the fulfillment of our prayers for ‘thy Kingdom come.’ What difference might faith-filled expectancy make in the way we go about our day-to-day lives? What difference might it make in our wider church family? A heart of brimming with expectation, rightly placed, is a good practice. In faith-filled expectancy, we learn trust; we learn holy longing; we learn patience; we’re molded to live in a way that pleases the Lord.